County receptive to converting school into housing

Hastings County Warden Rick Phillips speaks during a committee meeting Thursday, May 9, 2019 in Belleville, Ont. "The county is interested" in discussing with Belleville the potential of converting a former school for residential or long-term care use, he said. Luke Hendry/Belleville Intelligencer/Postmedia NetworkLuke Hendry / Luke Hendry/The Intelligencer

Hastings County, Belleville and Quinte West are beginning talks about the possibility of converting former schools into housing.

The county’s community and human services committee met Thursday at county headquarters in Belleville, where members reviewed a request from Belleville’s mayor in studying the future of the former Quinte Secondary School.

The school is on Belleville’s College Street West. It closed in June 2018.

In his letter, Mitch Panciuk asked for county staff to work with their city peers to study the potential for turning the school into a long-term care facility, “supportive housing, family housing and/or affordable housing units.”

Panciuk added the county’s help is needed “to make a tangible difference in the lives of those in our community most in need of our help.”

“The county is interested,” Warden Rick Phillips said Thursday.

“We certainly will engage in conversations involving that property,” he said.

“It is exciting and it’s a property that can be used for many different things.”

Community and human services director Erin Rivers said converting the large building “certainly would require a partnership.”

Neither the city nor the county has made a financial commitment toward the project.

City council held a special meeting April 29 to discuss possibilities for schools declared surplus by school boards.

Council heard the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board notifies at least 20 organizations after a school is deemed to be surplus. Each has 90 days in which to express interest. Once interest is declared, another 90-day period is allowed in which to make a deal. Ontario’s education ministry must also grant permission to put the building on the market.

That process has already been completed for Quinte Secondary and Hillcrest Public.

Panciuk told his council both schools “are ideal ones for us.”

Quinte West Coun. Terry Cassidy, a committee member, said the former College Street Public School may offer similar potential.

“Hopefully we’ll get the same kind of partnership … especially if we could find some federal money to help get it going,” he said.

Fellow councillor Karen Sharpe said Quinte West officials are “fine-tuning” their approach to that property.

The committee took no further action Thursday but Phillips said talks will continue.